Martin Milmore
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Martin Milmore (1844-1883) was a noted American sculptor.
Milmore immigrated to Boston from Sligo, Ireland, at age seven, graduated from Boston Latin School in 1860, took art lessons at the Lowell Institute, and learned to carve in wood and stone from his older brother Joseph. He entered the studio of Thomas Ball of Charlestown in his early teens and stayed until the mid-1860s. His first sculptures seem to have been cabinet-size busts of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord) and Charles Sumner, both modeled from life about 1863.
By his 20th birthday Milmore received a commission for three giant figures (Ceres, Flora and Pomona) for the front of the old Horticultural Hall, Boston, Massachusetts; they are now on display at the Elm Bank Horticulture Center. He subsequently designed the Roxbury Soldiers' Monument at Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plains (1867), the American Sphinx in Mount Auburn Cemetery (1872, illustrated, left), the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument for the Boston Common (1877), and a bust of Senator Charles Sumner now displayed in the United States Senate.
After Milmore died at the age of 38, Daniel Chester French created a very fine memorial tribute entitled "Death and the Sculptor" for his grave in Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.